Thoughts ??

Osteoporosis is a musculoskeletal abnormal body change where the bone decreases in the overall density which increases the risk of fracture in the body (Falkner & Green, 2018). Risk factors for osteoporosis include family history, increased age, female, Caucasian, smoker, sedentary lifestyle, high caffeine intake, alcohol consumption, history of no children and hormone changes in late start of periods and early menopause in aging women.

These risk factors for osteoporosis are both modifiable and non-modifiable. Non-modifiable risk factors such as age, gender, race and onset of menses and menopause. These are things that nurses cannot educate on or help manage because they are unable to be changed. The important aspect of non-modifiable risk factors includes educating patients on the potential of specific diseases such as osteoporosis and the risk factors that are unmodifiable and work to prevent them with different lifestyle changes to improve overall health. There are some risk factors that nurses can assist with managing and assisting individuals to ensure optimal health such as ensuring that they live a healthy life of physical activity, healthy diet, decreasing or eliminating caffeine, smoking and alcohol consumption and educating on specific hormone changes that occur that can cause the risk of osteoporosis. Educating will take different forms such as lifestyle changes, medication regimens that need to be implemented in order to assist patients with supplements and individual reflection on current habits and which ones need to be adjusted or eliminated.